After five weeks of intense campaign, it is finally the day of the federal ballot in Canada.
There are 43 seats to be won in British Columbia.
And with surveys showing the conservatives and the liberals in the elbow and the neck and the NPD which drags badly, the province is preparing as a critical battlefield which could decide whether the country sees a majority or a minority government.
“This could be an election where British Columbia makes a significant difference in the counting of the final seat. If it is really tight until the end, and the conservatives and the liberals run in the elbow and the neck, a few seats in British Columbia could make a big difference,” said political analyst David Moscrop to Global News.
In the last federal elections, the Liberals won 15 seats in British Columbia, while the Conservatives and the NPD each won 13.
Vancouver battlefield metro
As usual, a large part of the story will be the result of the rich and often competitive metro Vancouver, where the Liberals captured 13 seats in 2021 against five for the NPD and two for the Conservatives.
But adding to the drama this year is the apparent collapse of the NPD, with the ballot aggregator 338Canada.com suggesting only 14% support for the new Democrats, against 40% each for the Liberals and the Conservatives.
If these figures hold the ballot boxes, not only the constituencies of the NPD criticism in the Vancouver metro such as the own conduct of the leader Jagmeet Singh of Central Burnaby Be at stake, but the island of Vancouver, where the party holds six of the seven seats, could also be.
It was played in the way the leaders campaigned BC
“Jagmeet Singh is campaigning hard to hold the seats that the NPD already has in British Columbia, including of course its own, while Mark Carney (was) in British Columbia (last week) visiting four districts, two on the island of Vancouver in the Victoria region and two in the Vancouver region which are not detained by the Liberals, from the University of the Vallée de Fraser Valley, Thelord.
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With the siege of Singh, the Liberals hope to return several other new democratic districts of the Vancouver Metro, including Port Moody-Coquitlam, New Westminster-Burnaby-Maillard and Vancouver Kingsway. If the liberals increase on election day, even historically safe NPD circuits in the region like Vancouver East can be at stake.
The fate of the NPD, of course, is not the only story in the Vancouver metro where the two leading parts also turn their weapons on each other, and where Pierre Hairyvre and Mark Carney organized massive gatherings.
The Tories hope to return several districts of the Vancouver Metro from Red to Blue, notably Richmond East-Steveston, Richmond Center-Marpole, Surrey Center and Cloverdale-Langley City. The Liberals, on the other hand, target conservative constituencies, including the Heights of Langley Township-Fraser, Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford and Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge. The way these battles take place could play a disproportionate role in the formation of the government.
And a conservative conservative conservative conservative has become a driving to watch this year: Abbotsford-South Langley. After being rejected by the Conservative Party, the former deputy for BC Liberal / BC United, Mike de Jong, launched an independent offer that could see this competition becoming a race for three with the Liberals.
Vancouver Island in play
Hairyvre has also made several riding visits to the north of the island of Vancouver, such as Nanaimo-Ladysmith, Courtenay-Alberni and North Island-Powell River, whom the party hopes to start from the new Democrats.
Esquimalt-Soanich-Soke, lastly detained by new Democrats and a historically strong NPD conduct, now promises to be a race for three, while the Liberals are targeting Victoria.
The green party is also faced with a rigid challenge on the island. The co-leader of Green, Elizabeth May, fights to keep her seat in the islands of Saanich-Gulf with conservative Onsted Cathie.
Eyes on the inside
The race to look inside British Columbia is Kelowna, where the Liberal Stephen Fuhr – who held the headquarters from 2015 to 2019 – is trying to bring him back to curator Tracy Gray, who has held him since.
Everyone obtained the support of a former Prime Minister of British Columbia, with Christy Clark supporting Fuhr and Gordon Campbell supporting Gray.
But the softening of the NPD support could also see that the Conservatives make key microphones in two other constituencies: Similkameen-South-Okanagan-West Kooenay and Skeena-Bulkley Valley.
Voters, of course, will have the ultimate say how things shake British Columbia, the polls ending at 7 p.m. Monday.
But Moscrop thinks that the night of the elections can be a little more exciting for British Colombians than in election.
“I remember my stay in Vancouver which has always been my hope, that British Columbia would finally be the province to decide it, that it would not be called to the border of Manitoba before the arrival of the pizza on the evening of the elections,” he said.
“You know, this time, it could happen.”
& Copy 2025 Global News, A Division of Corus Entertainment Inc.